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REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW PANEL DICK THORNBURGH AND LOUIS D. BOCCARDI ON THE SEPTEMBER 8, 2004 60 MINUTES WEDNESDAY SEGMENT “FOR THE RECORD” CONCERNING PRESIDENT BUSH’S TEXAS AIR NATIONAL GUARD SERVICE JANUARY 5, 2005 KIRKPATRICK & LOCKHART NICHOLSON GRAHAM LLP Michael J. Missal, Esq. Lawrence Coe Lanpher, Esq. 1800 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 778-9000 Counsel to the Independent Review Panel i TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................1 II. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...............................................................................................4 A. 60 Minutes Wednesday Background..............................................................................6 B. The Pursuit of a Story on President Bush’s TexANG Service ......................................7 C. Obtaining Documents ....................................................................................................8 D. The Production of...

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-NY, announced on Sunday that he's introducing legislation to impeach Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. "I put in a bill for his resignation. It's shameful," Rangel told NBC's "News Forum" in New York. "Not only for his resignation, for his impeachment as well, because he would allow us to believe that he was shocked and he did not know exactly what we would be faced with [in Iraq]." Rangel blamed Rumsfeld and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz for "advising the president to get rid of Saddam Hussein." "It's embarrassing," he complained. "Here we are, the greatest nation...

I would like to make a point about the election that I think has been missed by all the pundits. Why was it as close as it was? The 9/11 attacks have been widely cited as helping Bush. They certainly did give him an opportunity to prove his leadership, but they also hurt him in another very important respect that nobody seems to realize. They sucker-punched the U.S. economy just as we were trying to come out of a recession. The economy is still a very important factor in Presidential elections whether we realize it or not. Had the 9/11...

By Jim Emerson Editor, RogerEbert.com October 14, 2004Who's the, uh, biggest villain in "Team America"? Kim Jong Il or Hollywood celebrities?"You should learn to keep your opinions OUT of your reviews!" Every critic I know has received at least one letter like that from an indignant reader. Of course, it's an absurd proposition; critics are paid to express their opinions, and the good ones (who exercise what is known across all disciplines as "critical thinking") are also able to cite examples and employ sound reasoning to build an argument, showing you how and why they reached their verdict. Well, since...

California College Republicans Chairman Michael P. Davidson issued the following statement on the use of the draft by MTV’s Rock the Vote and the KerryCampaign as a scare tactic this election year: "MTV and the Kerry campaign's use of the draft to scare young voters into voting is pathetic and disgusting. "While our servicemen are fighting for our country and the freedom of millions, military service should not be used as an instrument of fear. Military service is one of the most honorable deeds and any suggestion otherwise is grossly insulting. "In this campaign, there is only one person that...

St. Louis (CNSNews.com) - Republicans had no sooner shot down rumors of a military draft when Democratic Party Chairman Terry McAuliffe warned a group of College Democrats on Friday that President Bush would call them up for duty if re-elected. "I know it's controversial to say it, but don't think for one second that if George Bush gets re-elected and we have another conflict in some other theater of the world, we're going to have to reinstitute the draft," McAuliffe said. "It is very controversial to say it, but it is what it is." McAuliffe spoke to about a hundred...

To: National Desk Contact: Stuart Roy or Jonathan Grella, 202-225-4000, both of the Office of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 /U.S. Newswire/ -- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) today made the following remarks on the Democrat proposal for a military draft: "Sometimes -- not always, but sometimes -- a bill comes to the floor of this House after a long, deliberate examination of the facts surrounding a difficult issue with compelling arguments on both sides, and we can all come together and find common ground. "Sometimes, a bill is the result of hard-nosed political wrangling, and...

Debate is ongoing ...

No, we're not going -- we don't need the draft. Look, the all-volunteer Army is working. The all-volunteer Army... I know Senator McCain and I agree on this issue for certain, the all-volunteer Army works."   ~ President George W. Bush, August 10, 2004  President Bush is committed to keeping participation in the United States Armed Services voluntary.  The President’s cabinet has stated that a draft is not being considered.  Recruitment and retention rates remain strong, and the military has not had any problem maintaining a strong force.  President Bush is confident in the current state of the military and has assured...

I am a freshman in high school and would like to tell everyone in the Bush camp that among my peers the draft is the #1 issue. I know the FR community is very large, so I am hoping someone in the campaign will read this. I also understand that many college students are basing their votes for John Kerry on the draft issue alone. We need to make sure that they know that it is John Kerry, not George Bush, that is more likely to impose a draft. Do not let John Kerry's baseless charge made today go unanswered....

There is quite a brouhaha in South Carolina politics this week as we let You Decide 2004. It’s all over a voter registration mailer that seems to suggest if you don’t vote, you might get drafted. The United States has the largest volunteer military in the world. Mostly young people go to recruiting stations to either serve their country or reap the education benefits. But mention a draft--and it gets a lot of people going. The democrats managed to do exactly that this summer. It may have come as a surprise in your mailbox, and an unpleasant one. When you...

NOTE: President Carter used his 1980 SOTU speech to address the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the American hostages taken by Iran. He called for increasing military spending, reducing restrictions on the CIA, and revival of the selective services registration. Many on the left, like Noam Chomsky, attacked him for his response to the crisis, others, like Sen. McGovern supported him, while John Kerry offered qualified support and equivocation. ************************************************************************************************** January 25, 1980 by Richard H. Stewart Globe Staff Antiwar activists from the Vietnam era are not as united about President Jimmy Carter's tough-sounding [State of the Union] speech on...

Associated Press WASHINGTON -- Most U.S. high-school students believe the government will restart the military draft during their lifetimes, and shrinking numbers are optimistic about the country's future, a new poll finds. Among teenagers, 55 percent say young Americans will be required to serve in the military, up from 45 percent last year, according to "The State of Our Nation's Youth," an annual survey by the Horatio Alger Association. During the year between polls - May 2003 to May 2004 - U.S. casualties mounted during attacks in Iraq even after President Bush declared on May 1, 2003, that major combat...

There is no serious effort afoot to restore the draft, contrary to rumors circulating on the Internet. One Web site, bushdraft.com, claims to have "absolute proof that (President) Bush is making plans to reinstate the draft by the middle of 2005." Like most rumors, these contain enough kernels of fact to sustain, if not a feeding frenzy, then a platter of tantalizing hors d'oeuvres for conspiracy enthusiasts: Draft boards are indeed being maintained, but they have been routinely funded by Congress all along. The just-approved appropriation increases the previous year's spending on Selective Service by less than 1 percent. Upon...

My daughter-in-law has a sister in a California college. Recently, the sister attending college, said that her boyfriend had received a notice to register for the draft. I know that Congress has passed nothing to reinstate the draft and that the main two sponsors of the resolutions for draft are both Democrats ( Rangel in the House and Fritz Hollings in the Senate). Is it possible that individual states are sending notices to register for the draft? My initial thought is that there could be someone forging the draft registration notices to scare the young voters and college crowd.

I keep catching hell from folks who want to insist that a new draft is coming, and that the Bush Administration is engineering it so that "their rich kids" won't be caught up in it.Citizen Smash has done the legwork to find out exactly who is behind this push.But who is behind this movement to reinstate the draft? Let’s check the Congressional Record. In the House of Representatives:Charles Rangel, NYNeil Abercrombie, HICorrine Brown, FLDonna M. Christensen,VIWilliam Lacy Clay, MOJohn Conyers, Jr., MIElijah E. Cummings, MDAlcee L. Hastings, FLSheila Jackson-Lee, TXJohn Lewis, GAJim McDermott, WAJames P. Moran, VAEleanor Holmes Norton, DCFortney...

<p>Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday dismissed the notion of reinstating the military draft, saying that the Pentagon, if needed, can dig deeper into Reserve and National Guard forces to relieve troops deployed in the war on terrorism.</p> <p>"I don't know anyone in the executive branch of the government who believes it would be appropriate or necessary to reinstitute the draft," Mr. Rumsfeld told a Washington gathering of members of the Newspaper Association of America, the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Associated Press.</p>

Prominent lawmakers such as Rep. Charles Rangel of New York and others argue that our volunteer military is not representative of society, and that it offends fairness to have casualties in Iraq disproportionately drawn from members of America's less advantaged classes. A presidential election is shaping up in which two veterans of the Vietnam era have had to assert or defend their performance in that conflict - America's last draft-based war. To anyone under age 45, discussions of the draft must seem like discussions of the Great Depression seemed to their parents. The last time a young American male faced...